Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller was sentenced to one year in prison following her fraud case, hiding some $755,000 from her earnings during her time in the dance reality show and other projects. She started serving her prison term in July 2017 but was recently released from jail and transported to a halfway house in Long Beach, California. However, the dance instructor was recently taken to the emergency room after suffering from an extremely unusual spinal infection.

Orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. Hooman M. Melamed of Cedar Sinai Marina Del Rey Hospital told People that Abby Lee Miller “was going to die” if they did not do something to save her life. According to the surgeon, the former Dance Moms instructor experienced “excruciating neck pain,” leaving her completely paralyzed. Her weakness also started to deteriorate in just 24 hours. When the dance instructor’s blood pressure began to bottom out, her doctors thought of transporting her to another hospital, but they were afraid she might not make it.

Dr. Melamed went on to say that they did a CT scan on Abby Lee Miller, where they found out that there is an infection that had spread from her neck down to her lower back. The surgeon said that it’s something “extremely unusual” and he had no idea what caused the dance instructor’s health problem that deteriorated quickly.

“There could be a million reasons of this. Normally, you see this in someone who is compromised, if they have diabetes or [are] a smoker or [have] heart problems, but that’s not really her. She has a very well controlled diabetes, actually her numbers are in the pre-diabetic range so to see something like that, it is extremely unusual.”

Extra reported that Abby Lee Miller underwent a surgery on her spinal cord at 1 a.m. on Tuesday to stop the infection. If the multi-level laminectomy procedure wasn’t performed, she would be paralyzed for good. The surgery took five hours to c0mplete and an 18-inch incision was required on her back to relieve pressure on her spinal cord.

Dr. Melamed also said that Abby Lee Miller can walk again, but it depends on her recovery. On the plus side, she has shown some progress in 24 hours, something that makes the doctor hopeful. He added that the Dance Moms star now feels like she can move her arms and she now has more sensation after the surgery.

In the event that there will be no more surgeries to be performed, Abby Lee Miller will be discharged from the hospital into the rehabilitation by the end of the week.